What Pi Sounds Like

By Maria Popova

We love the intersection of mathandcreativity. And we have a soft spot for unusual ways to create music. (Previously, we’ve seen that anything from produce to the HIV virus to your apartment can make music.) Earlier this week, we explored extraordinary mind of autistic savant Daniel Tammet, whose synesthesia allows him to experience numbers in color, sound and texture. But what if one could use ordinary tools to translate one source of cognitive input into an entirely different sensory experience?

That’s exactly what Michael John Blake did in his musical interpretation of the number Pi, translating each of the first 31 decimals into a note and performing the piece on varioius instruments to a tempo of 157 beats per minute. Priceless.

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